| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman | Presented by |  | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | ELECTION DAY IS 5 DAYS away, and both the House and Senate are back home, so there's little reason to be hopeful for progress on a Covid relief deal. AND THIS MORNING, we have a brand new letter Speaker NANCY PELOSI sent to Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN. PELOSI lists all the areas that remain unsolved in the negotiation -- and they happen to be precisely the areas where Washington's Most Eager Man has not been terribly eager to send PELOSI counter-offers. The new Pelosi letter to Mnuchin PELOSI: "[A]s the coronavirus surges and the stock market plummets, we are still awaiting the Trump Administration's promised responses on multiple items of critical importance." THE AREAS where MNUCHIN still owes PELOSI language or responses include: testing, tracing and treatment, state and local funding, schools, child care, earned income and child tax credits, unemployment insurance, OSHA and liability. IN OTHER WORDS, PELOSI is suggesting MNUCHIN and the administration owe her answers on nearly every contentious issue in the Covid relief package. So -- no, the two sides are nowhere close. Not at all. And it doesn't appear that they have been close throughout the nearly 100 days of talks thus far. WHY DOES THIS MATTER 5 DAYS before ELECTION DAY? Most people in Congress agree the economy needs another stimulus bill, but lawmakers disagree on the shape and size. And PELOSI'S letter illustrates that the administration still owes her a ton of answers. If there's any chance of getting something in the lame duck, there's a long way to go. -- ON STATE AND LOCAL … WSJ: "U.S. States Face Biggest Cash Crisis Since the Great Depression," by Heather Gillers and Gunjan Banerji BEN WHITE on the country's economic outlook with new GDP numbers out this morning: "Trump, who has repeatedly mentioned that he would get this big GDP number right before the election, will almost certainly brag about how it is the best in history. And it almost certainly will be. But it will also follow the equally historic 31 percent decline in the second quarter. "Because the third quarter started from such a low base, even an increase slightly larger than the 31 percent decline would not return economic activity to where it was at the end of the first quarter." THE STOCK MARKET has been absolutely rocked the last few days, which analysts say is due to a rising number of coronavirus cases, and the fact that Washington has not come to a stimulus deal after more than 100 days of trying. WaPo's Jeff Stein on the market turbulence MILES TAYLOR is Anonymous. Depending on whom you believe, he was either a top official at DHS who had a major hand in policies that separated parents from their kids, or he was a zero who barely had face time with the secretary -- or some combination of the two. Here's some of the general reaction to his announcement. -- CNN'S @joshcampbell: "I asked Miles Taylor back on August 17 if he was 'Anonymous.' Rather than declining to comment, he said: 'No. Sorry to disappoint. You weren't the first though today!'" -- NBC'S @jacobsoboroff: "Miles Taylor was a critical part of the team that decided to separated thousands of migrant kids from their parents, resulting in lifelong psychological trauma. He would like you to believe otherwise." -- AXIOS' @jonathanvswan: "Turns out the NYT oped page gave an enormous 'Resistance' platform to a staffer whose agency green-lit the Trump administration's most hardline immigration moves, including family separation, during his tenure. … I also didn't realize the definition of 'senior administration official' could be *this* expansive. Wasn't even an agency chief of staff at the time the op-ed ran." -- WAPO'S PAUL FARHI and SARAH ELLISON: "The New York Times called 'Anonymous' op-ed author Miles Taylor a Trump 'senior official.' Was that accurate?" HMM ... IT LOOKS LIKE THE TRUMP ORG is getting rid of a helicopter. Jet Edge Partners with the listing Good Thursday morning. BREAKING OVERNIGHT … AP/PARIS: "French police: 2 dead in knife attack near church in Nice": "French anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating a knife attack at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice that killed two people and injured several. The prosecutor's office and national police said that an investigation was opened into an attack with a terrorist connection after Thursday's stabbing. The exact motive of the attack was unclear but comes as France is under high alert for terrorist acts amid tensions over the publication of caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and after two other recent attacks." | | A message from the Partnership for America's Health Care Future: When it comes to health care, lowering costs is voters' highest priority – but the public option could force the average worker to pay $2,500 more a year in payroll taxes in addition to the cost of their current coverage. Get the facts. | | | TEXAS IS NOW A REAL THING … -- NYT'S JONATHAN MARTIN in Brownsville: "Texas Is a Tossup. So Why Won't Trump or Biden Campaign There?": "They may be on opposite sides of the partisan divide, but Texas Republicans and Democrats alike believe the long-awaited moment has arrived: The state is a true presidential battleground, and either candidate could prevail next week. "Although a Democrat has not carried Texas since 1976, recent public and private polls suggest a highly competitive race, with some surveys showing Mr. Biden up narrowly and others showing Mr. Trump enjoying a small lead. "Yet even as leading figures in both parties urge their respective presidential nominees to take Texas seriously, the campaigns are still reluctant to spend precious remaining time and money there. Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden is expected to appear in the state before the election, the president has not spent a cent on television commercials, and until this week Mr. Biden had resisted advertising in Texas' two largest markets, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. "Though the state isn't essential to a Biden victory, Democrats have been more aggressive here. Mr. Biden is dispatching his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, to Texas on Friday, and Democrats have also planned a multicity bus tour across the state. A pair of Democratic billionaires, Dustin Moskovitz and Michael R. Bloomberg, have separately poured money into the state at the 11th hour. … "Recent polls, soaring early vote participation in the state's most populous counties, and more than 50 interviews with Texans in three pivotal regions point to an increasingly competitive race because of a spike in turnout by an electorate that is diverse, loathes the president and makes a mockery of his pistols-and-petroleum stereotype of the state." -- WAPO'S JENNA JOHNSON and ARELIS HERNÁNDEZ with a San Antonio dateline: "Can Democrats win Texas? A surge of new voters and Trump antipathy give them reason to hope": Many Texas Democrats had eyed 2024 as the year when what has been elusive for so long might just happen: Their state's growing, diversifying electorate would make them truly competitive statewide. "That change could come this year instead. The presidential race has tightened to become nearly neck-and-neck. The state has led the country in early voting, and more than 8 million Texans have cast ballots, more than 90 percent of the overall number who voted in 2016. Some experts project that turnout could hit 12 million by Election Day. … "The political evolution in Texas has been sped up not just by demographic changes that have been underway for years, but also by the repelling power of President Trump and the burst of liberal activism he has inspired. In the four years since the last presidential election, at least 2 million people have moved to Texas, many of them Democrats from places like California, Florida, New York and Illinois. An estimated 800,000 young Latino Americans have turned 18, and a wave of immigrants became naturalized citizens. More than 3 million Texans have newly registered to vote." LOL … SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-Ga.) seemed to suggest that she didn't know about the "Access Hollywood" tape. The video, with what appears to be a cameo from our pal Manu Raju QUITE THE MOMENT from Wednesday night's JON OSSOFF/SEN. DAVID PERDUE debate, in which OSSOFF calls PERDUE a crook. 1:12 video THE SUPREME COURT STARTS REVVING ITS ENGINE, via ZACH MONTELLARO and JOSH GERSTEIN: "The Supreme Court left the status quo intact in a pair of swing-state election cases on Wednesday, turning aside Republicans who aimed to block a ballot-receipt extension in North Carolina and declining to expedite a Republican challenge to the Pennsylvania deadline, while leaving the option of weighing in on that case after Election Day." TRUMP'S CLOSING MESSAGE … HOLLY OTTERBEIN in Philadelphia: "Trump stokes suburban fears after Philadelphia shooting": "Donald Trump is making a last-ditch effort to rattle the suburbs. In the wake of civil unrest sparked by a fatal police shooting here Monday, the president returned to fear-mongering about big-city chaos and violence, leaning hard on law-and-order rhetoric in the hopes of winning back the suburban voters who have deserted him. "Less than 24 hours after law enforcement officials fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who was carrying a knife and reportedly suffered from mental illness, the president's campaign responded by announcing it was airing a national TV ad. The spot falsely accused Joe Biden of 'refusing to strongly condemn violence' across the country after similar incidents. "By Wednesday, Trump, who is trailing Biden by 4 to 5 percentage points in Pennsylvania, cast the blame squarely on Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney: 'It's a terrible thing, what I'm witnessing is terrible, and frankly that the mayor or whoever it is that's allowing people to riot and loot and not stop them is also just a horrible thing. I saw the event, everybody did — it was on television, it was a terrible event, I guess that's being looked at very strongly.' 'You can't let that go on. Again — a Democrat-run state, a Democrat-run city, Philadelphia,' he said, adding that Biden 'doesn't want to condemn them.'" -- PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: "Philly under curfew as tensions over Wallace death continue" | | | | A message from the Partnership for America's Health Care Future:   The public option could raise the average worker's taxes by $2,500/year in addition to the cost of their current coverage. Get the facts. | | | THE BATTLE FOR FLORIDA … AP: "Trump, Biden to appeal to last-minute voters in Florida," by Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani and Tamara Lush with a Tampa, Fla., dateline: "President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden are set to chase votes in Florida, a state all but essential to the Republican's pathway to another term as both nominees turn their focus to encouraging voters to turn out on Election Day. "More than 73 million Americans have already voted, absentee or by mail, and Trump and Biden are trying to energize the millions more who will vote in person on Tuesday. While the Election Day vote traditionally favors Republicans and early votes tend toward Democrats, the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 227,000 Americans, has injected new uncertainty about the makeup of the electorate." MIAMI HERALD: "Florida Democrats look to increase Black voter turnout as Biden visits Broward County," by David Smiley TRUTH TALK -- "Why Trump needs to suppress the vote to win," by David Siders and Zach Montellaro: "Donald Trump won the presidency with 46 percent of the popular vote. His approval rating, according to Gallup, has never hit 50 percent. He remains under 50 percent in national polling averages. "The president's inability to capture a majority of support sheds light on his extraordinary attempts to limit the number of votes cast across the battleground state map — a massive campaign-within-a-campaign to maximize Trump's chances of winning a contest in which he's all but certain to earn less than 50 percent of the vote. "In Philadelphia, his campaign is videotaping voters as they return ballots. In Nevada, it's suing to force elections officials in Nevada's Democratic-heavy Clark County to more rigorously examine ballot signatures for discrepancies that could disqualify them. The Trump campaign has sued to prevent the expanded use of ballot drop boxes in Ohio, sought to shoot down an attempt to expand absentee ballot access in New Hampshire and tried to intervene against a lawsuit brought by members of the Navajo Nation in Arizona which sought to allow ballots received from reservations after Election Day because of mail delays. And that's just a few of its efforts. "Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to depress the vote as Trump." POLITICO TRUMP'S THURSDAY -- The president will depart Doral, Fla., at noon and travel to Tampa. He will deliver a campaign speech at 1:35 p.m. Afterward, he and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Pope Field, N.C. They will participate in a troop engagement at 5:15 p.m. in Fort Bragg, N.C. They will depart for Fayetteville, N.C., at 5:50 p.m. Trump will give a campaign speech at 6:30 p.m. Afterward, they will return to Washington and return to the White House at 10 p.m. -- VP MIKE PENCE will leave Washington at 12:35 p.m. and travel to Des Moines, Iowa. He will deliver a campaign speech at 2:10 p.m. CDT. Pence will depart at 3:30 p.m. en route to Reno, Nev. He will deliver another campaign speech at 5 p.m. He will spend the night in Reno. -- IVANKA TRUMP is going to Blue Bell and Waymart, Pa., today. ON THE TRAIL -- JOE BIDEN will travel to speak at a drive-in event in Broward County, Fla., in the afternoon. Later, he'll deliver remarks at a drive-in event in Tampa. Sen. KAMALA HARRIS (D-Calif.) will participate in a virtual rally at 5 p.m. focused on Black Greek letter organizations. She will attend a virtual fundraiser. Harris will participate in a virtual climate rally hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 8 p.m. | | | | HAPPENING TODAY - CONFRONTING INEQUALITY IN AMERICA: POLITICO Live is convening physicians, advocates, and policymakers for its second town hall in the Confronting Inequality in America series. Join the group to discuss the policy and public health solutions needed to solve the inequalities in the U.S. health care system that have a disproportionate impact on Black and other patients of color. REGISTER HERE TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO DU JOUR: A passing car's headlights illuminate a darkened Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, after Hurricane Zeta left much of the city and metro area without power on Wednesday, Oct. 28. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo | DAN DIAMOND SCOOP -- "'Helping the president': HHS official sought to rebrand coronavirus campaign": "The Trump appointee who steered a $300 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign to 'defeat despair' about the coronavirus privately pitched a different theme last month: 'Helping the President will Help the Country.' "That proposal, which came in a meeting between Trump administration officials and campaign contractors, is among documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee that further illustrate how political considerations shaped the massive campaign as officials rushed to get public service announcements on the air before Election Day. The committee shared the documents with POLITICO, which first detailed the campaign in a series of reports last month. "For instance, contractors vetted at least 274 potential celebrity contributors for their stances on gay rights, gun control and the 2016 election before allowing them to participate in the campaign. One promised public service announcement, which would have also featured infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, was nixed because the celebrity who was set to participate with Fauci had been critical of President Donald Trump, according to documents. "The official overseeing the campaign — Michael Caputo, who Trump personally tapped as the health department's top spokesperson — also sought to overrule the career civil servants assigned to the campaign, directly urging contractors to rush production of ads with celebrities like Trump-supporting actor Antonio Sabato, Jr." POLITICO JOHN HARRIS column: "The Supreme Court Is Begging For a Legitimacy Crisis" BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- "North Carolina says no to international observers at election polling sites," by McClatchy's Michael Wilner and Chiara Vercellone | | | | A message from the Partnership for America's Health Care Future:   American families can't afford the public option. Learn why. | | | AD WARS -- "Facebook missteps stoke fears of long political ad blackout online," by Elena Schneider and Zach Montellaro: "When Facebook and Google announced plans to ban new political ads around the end of the election, they left one key thing out of the new policies: an end date. "Now, as Facebook's pre-election blackout on new ads begins and a total post-election freeze on Google and Facebook ads looms, digital strategists in both parties are worried that ads on the biggest digital platforms may never come back — or, at the very least, they'll be down so long that they paralyze campaigns in major races set to stretch beyond Nov. 3. "Those fears spiked in recent days after Facebook's blackout started Tuesday with the social media giant taking down ads that groups in both parties said had been pre-approved. A day and a half later, many groups said they are still struggling to resolve these inconsistencies with the companies' advertising reps. "Democrats, in particular, are concerned that the undefined timeline for restarting online ads could hamper efforts to raise money and voter awareness around potential Senate runoffs in Georgia and Mississippi in January. Others noted that the policies will make it more difficult for campaigns to raise legal funds for recounts." POLITICO IN MEMORIAM -- "A Life of Fellowship: Nick Owens (1974–2020)": "Legendary Washington connector and advisor, champion of American business owners, proud Mississippian, Nicholas N. Owens succumbed to cancer in Washington, DC on October 24, 2020, surrounded by loved ones. He was 45. … "In 2009, Nick leveraged his professional expertise to launch his own enterprise: Magnolia Strategy Partners, LLC … Following the election, Nick joined President Trump's Transition Team as an Economic — Business Issues Advisor. … In 2020, Nick was appointed to serve as the Co-Chair for the COVID-19 Legal and Government Affairs Task Force." | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: We're excited to launch a newsletter written for insiders that will track the appointments, the people, and the power centers of the next administration. Both Team Biden and Team Trump have been working behind the scenes for months vetting potential nominees and drafting policy agendas. Transition Playbook takes you inside those preparations, personnel decisions, and policy deliberations. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com. SPOTTED at a Zoom party Wednesday night for Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith's new book, "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency" ( $14.44 on Amazon), hosted by Kevin Sheekey and Howard Wolfson: Patti Harris, Steve Benjamin, Manny Diaz, Michael Beschloss, Josh Mendelsohn, Joe Crowley, Jef Pollock, Joel Johnson, Mike Feldman, Sam Sheekey, Craig Minassian, Liz Robbins, Jason Schechter, Ty Trippet, Henry Schuster, Hilary Rosen, Dan Glickman, Jake Siewert, Galia Slayen, Heather Podesta, Melissa Moss, Mary Schapiro, Kelly Ayotte, Stephanie Cutter, Max Stier, Gary Ginsberg, Tammy Haddad, Mike Allen, Rachel Nagler, Susie Buffett, Rick Davis and Athena Jones. SPOTTED on a Tom Ridge DHS alumni Zoom call Wednesday night: Tom Ridge, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, acting USAID Administrator John Barsa, James McCament, Ed Cash, Duncan Campbell, Joe Rozek, Andy Maner, Stewart Verdery, Dan Kaniewski, Joe Whitley, Libby Elliott, George Bamford, Chuck McQueary, Matt Bettenhausen, Josh Filler, Janet Hale, Kim Palmese, Pam Turner, Rich Cooper, Bob Liscouski, Sally Canfield, Marie Vachon, Joe Gerdes, Jim Olson, Ellen Howe, Genevieve Hartley, John Herr, Ross Ashley and Donald Tighe. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- Niki Christoff is launching Christoff & Co., a boutique comms consultancy. She previously was an SVP at Salesforce, and is an Uber and Google alum. TRANSITIONS -- Cody Sanders is now policy coordination manager at the National Security Council. He previously was director of proclamations and messages at the White House. … Bob Voltmann is now CEO of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association. He previously was the longtime president and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Will Ritter, co-founder of Poolhouse, and Kelli Ritter, a Mitt Romney alum, recently welcomed Benjamin Robert Ritter. He joins big brother Calvin. Pic BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Natalie Jones Hallahan, SVP for external affairs and diplomatic engagement at the Meridian International Center. How she's celebrating: "I'll start my day with a sunrise run to the Lincoln Memorial, bake a cake with my 5-year-old girl Eleanor and enjoy a rooftop dinner with Patrick and a few dear friends at Rose's Luxury." Playbook Q&A BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) is 68 … David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, is 62 … Kate Bedingfield and Seth Schuster of the Biden campaign, which is celebrating with a virtual dance party … Jim Messina is 51 … Phoebe Kilgour (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … former acting A.G. Matt Whitaker is 51 … CNN's Laura Jarrett and David Siegel … WaPo White House editor Dave Clarke … Tony Sayegh (h/t Brian Morgenstern) … Bloomberg Opinion's Robert George … Washington Examiner's Jamie McIntyre … Geoff Turley … POLITICO's Steve Heuser and Cam Debro … Isabelle James … former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is 69 … Mike Saccone … Washingtonian's Mimi Montgomery … Steve Smith, deputy chief comms officer at the ACLU … Kat Timpf, host of "Sincerely Kat" on Fox Nation … Bob Stevenson … Ryan Akira Quinn, Swing Left political director, is 26 (h/t Tori Taylor) … Noah Dion … … Nelson Cunningham, president and co-founder of McLarty Associates … WSJ editorial writer Kate Bachelder Odell … Mercedes LeGrand (h/t Ed Cash) … Bill Jaffee, press secretary for Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) ... Justin McCartney, press secretary for Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), is 24 … Nick Yaeger … Coby King is 6-0 … former Sen. Connie Mack III (R-Fla.) is 8-0 … Safi Majid … Andy Weitz, Aon's chief marketing officer … Deloitte's Jon Pool … Max Yoeli ... Leigh Helfenbein … Susan Mercandetti ... Daisy Letendre … Sonia Colin-Reed ... Diana D'Abruzzo ... Peter Albrecht, SVP at AL Media Strategy … Aaron Jacobs ... WSJ's Samantha Zeldin … Kerry Hannon (h/t Jon Haber) … Gary Gould ... Nick Powell ... Michael Slaby … Jeff Hillery … Yangyang Cheng … Mark Olingy … Rachel Barinbaum ... Steve Lynch ... Sophie Bauer … Dimitri Simes ... former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is 82 | | A message from the Partnership for America's Health Care Future: During this critical time, access to affordable, high-quality health care is more important than ever, but creating the public option could result in higher taxes or premiums for American families. In fact, a recent study finds the public option would become the third most expensive government program behind Medicare and Social Security, both of which are already at risk for those who rely on them.
Let's build on and improve what's working where private coverage, Medicare and Medicaid work together, not start over with a one-size-fits-all government health insurance system like the public option. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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